#45_Chicken Quesadillas (Empanada Style)

According to Mr. Wiki (pedia) Quesadilla means "little Cheesy thing" and is a fast food item in Mexican cuisine which involves cooking the ingredients inside a corn or flour tortilla.

Wedges of Quesadillas

I like to use flour tortilla with my quesadilla.



I use a combination of these two cheeses although the pizza cheese is a blend of 3 kinds of chesses including mozzarella cheese, I like to add more mozzarella to my quesadillas for the ooey, gooey effect.

You can basically use anything you prefer for filling inside the tortilla, like cubed ham or cooked pork. In this case, I used cooked shredded chicken breast, chopped red onion, chopped green pepper, and lots of cheese.

Here's the steps on how to make the quesadilla empanada style:

1) Butter one side of the tortilla and place the buttered side on a plate (or directly onto a pan).

2) Spread some shredded cheese on one half side of the tortilla, making sure the cheese comes out to the very edges of the tortilla; the cheese will serve as sealing agent as they melt.

3) Top the cheese with the chicken, red and green peppers and red onion; cover with more cheese.

4) Bring the other half of the tortilla over to the filled part, like empanada. (At this point the edges won't seal together)

5) Heat a non-stick frying pan or cast iron pan; do not oil the bottom of pan.

6) When pan is hot but not smoking hot, slide the filled tortilla into the pan and grill each side pressing down the edges to seal. It's the melting cheese that will make the edges to seal up.

Transfer quesadilla to a plate and cut it into wedges.

#44_Banana Nut Bread

Sweet & Moist and Easy to Make Banana Bread

My first baking experience was baking banana bread which was a total disaster and a disappointment because I accidentally omitted the sugar while making the batter. Of course without sugar, the bread came out not only tasted so bland, but also tasted awful. Nobody in my family including myself wanted to eat them except my father. He said the bread tasted okay if you sprinkled them with sugar as you eat them. I thought that was very kind of him.

I've come a long way since my first Banana Bread.
These are sweet and moist and definitely have sugar in them.

The recipe makes four 4x9 loaves

Recipe for Banana Nut Bread

Dry ingredients:

3-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (optional)

Wet ingredients:
1-3/4 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup melted butter(1 stick)

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

4-5 very ripe bananas, mashed

1 cup walnuts, chopped and toasted

Procedure:

1) In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and the pumpkin pie spice; set aside

2) Cream together brown sugar, butter and canola oil, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the mashed bananas and vanilla.

3) Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just blended.

4) Fold in the nuts

5) Pour batter into 4 greased 4x9 loaf pans ( or aluminum foil pans, 7-1/2"x 3-1/2")

6) Bake in a pre-heated 350 degrees oven for 50 minutes

7) Cool before slicing

Updated 2-10

#43_Mashed Potatoes

I overheard somebody talking about perfect mashed potatoes at a restaurant awhile ago. In my opinion, I don't think there is such a thing as perfect mashed potatoes. The way one makes it or likes his mashed potatoes is purely a personal preference. For some people, they like their mashed potatoes light and fluffy, some like it dense and lumpy, or creamy, or runny, or country (with skins on).
Although I'm not a meat-and-potato person but rather a rice-and-gulay person, when I cook or eat mashed potatoes, I like mine light and fluffy. For those who don't like it that way, then it won't be a perfect mashed potato for them.

I wasn't able to take a picture of the finished product because I was running behind schedule at the time but the picture above shows how I prepared the potatoes to be mashed. Peeling the potatoes is the hard part, other than that it is really easy to make it.

Recipe for basic mashed potatoes:

5 lbs. russet potatoes

1 stick butter

1 can evaporated milk, heated

salt to taste

Peel and wash the potatoes then slice them crosswise. I discovered that it is faster to slice them this way than slicing them in cubes. Put the sliced potatoes in a big pot and put enough water to cover them. On medium high heat, boil the potatoes until fork tender. Drain the water but leave a little bit in the bottom of the pot. To the hot potatoes, add some salt and the butter and hot milk. With a potato masher, mash them tatoes, it is a good work out for the arm. After mashing it with potato masher, use an electric hand mixer and beat the mixture until smooth and fluffy. If dense, add some more hot milk.

Serve it hot with gravy. Click here for gravy recipe #260

Note: I have a big aluminum pot that I use for boiling the potatoes. I mash and beat them with the mixer in the same pot I boiled them in. You can transfer the boiled potatoes to a big bowl and mashed them but you have to work quickly to make sure the potatoes stay really hot when mashing.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today is yours truly's birthday; grandson Benjamin brought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and sang a beautiful birthday song!! Thanx Benj, you can try out for American Idol.

After working most of the day, hubby took me to a Chinese restaurant, one that we haven't been to before. It was a nice place and the food was good.

This is what the birthday girl ordered, Kung Pao chicken which was good except the sauce was a little bit salty

My hubby ordered sweet and sour sauce chicken with brown rice. He said it was really good. Over all the dinner was good and we had an enjoyable dinner.

#42_Stuffing with Italian Sausage

Let me back track and post a recipe or two from the Thanksgiving dinner before everything gets so crazy again this month. I am afraid I will never get caught up with all the recipes I intend to post from last month's event. So I better squeeze in this one recipe:

Stuffing or Dressing with Italian Sausage
before it hit the oven

I've never stuffed the turkey with the dressing, but always baked it separately from the turkey like a casserole. It probably has something to do with psychological effect rather than taste.

Home-style Stuffing Bread

Stuffing bread is one of the few items that I make days ahead of time, but there was a disastrous moment that occurred this year as I tried making the stuffing bread few days before Thanksgiving day. I was multi-tasking at the time I had the bread cubes in the oven, and didn't hear the timer go off, so I ended with burnt bread cubes. I went and bought these stuffing bread from a local grocery store, who makes homemade style stuffings, by that I mean the bread cubes are larger and do not have too much crumbs, unlike the kind you buy in boxes.

sausage is sauteed in skillet

Recipe for the stuffing:
2 packages (1 lb. each) Italian sausages
1 can black olives, sliced
1 onion, chopped
5 stalks celery, sliced
1 lb. stuffing bread
1 tsp salt
1 tsp. poultry seasoning
1- 1/4 to 1-1/2 cans chicken broth (updated)

Procedure:
Heat a skillet. (there is no need to use cooking oil). In it, saute the sausages and onions together until the sausage starts to render its fat. Cover and let it simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally, until the meat is tender. Turn off heat then add in the celery, olives and seasonings, stir well; then add the bread cubes. Pour in chicken broth (more if you prefer very moist stuffing) and lightly mix together.

Transfer the mixture to a greased baking dish (or aluminum foil pan) then cover with aluminum foil and bake in a pre-heated 350 degrees oven for about 30 minutes.

Optional: You can add coarsely chopped pecan nuts before baking.

#41_ Lace Cookies

These cookies are very thin, crispy and have buttery taste.
They are so delicate that they tend to shatter to pieces
when you bite into them,
but they are very good, in fact, they can be addicting.

Drop them by teaspoonfuls on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.

As they are baked they spread out and become bubbly
and form lace-like holes where they got their name from, thus,
Lace Cookies

Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 cup rolled oats, ground in food processor

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp. flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup pecans, finely chopped

Procedure:

1) In a bowl, mix all ingredients together with a fork. Cover with a plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator overnight. ( if you can't wait that long, at least 2 hours)

2) Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

3) Line cookie sheets with parchment papers.

4) Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls and about 3 inches apart on the prepared pans.

5) Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges turn light brown.

6) Let them stand for about 3 minutes or til cookies are firm then peel them off the parchment paper and transfer them to cooling racks. Cool completely before storing.

Note from MaMely:

1) This is optional: after peeling them off the parchment paper, you can sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

#40_No-Bake Cheesecakes

I found this recipe on the label of Cool Whip topping over 20 years ago and since then it has been in my family and has become my husband's favorite kind of cheesecake.

This cheesecake is irresistibly delish and very easy to make. It is a "no-bake" and "no-cook" kind. How easy can that be? You can make this dessert in 10 minutes, but you have to wait about 5 hours though before you can slice it up. It needs to be chilled first.

The main ingredients are: graham cracker crust, cream cheese, sour cream and cool whip....and of course, your favorite toppings.

For toppings you can use your favorite canned fruit pie fillings or toppings as pictured above or you can make your own out of fresh fruits. ( Blueberry pie filling is missing from the picture)


These are mini or personal sizsepie crusts ready to be filled with CreamCheese fillings. I love using these ready crusts because they cut down on my preparation time by half. They are so convenient and make baking a little easier.

Don't these look like fruit tarts? I don't understand why they are called cheesecakes as they look more of tarts or pies than cakes.

Here's the recipe for 2 cheesecakes:

2 (9 inch) graham cracker pie crusts
1 brick (8oz) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 container (8 oz) Cool Whip topping
1 can fruit pie filling or topping

Procedure:
1) Cream together cream cheese and sugar
2) Stir in sour cream and vanilla
3) Fold in the Cool Whip (do not stir or mix...just fold)
4) Fill the crusts equally with the cream cheese mixture
5) Top with your favorite fruit pie fillings
5) Chill in the fridge for at least 5 hours before slicing

Note from Mamely:

1) The pie crusts will stand up to the pie fillings a lot better if you brush them with egg wash (egg yolk and 2 tbsp. milk) then bake them in a pre-heated 350 degrees oven for just 3 minutes. Cool before filling.

#39_Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Chewy and moist inside, they have good crusts on the outside, these cookies will vanish quickly. I found this recipe on the lid of Quaker oatmeal canister and the original name of it was Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. I pretty much followed the recipe except for a couple of changes. One, I soaked the raisins in fruit juice like orange juice or apple juice for one hour before adding them in with the mixture. By doing this, the raisins will plump up and become soft and makes the cookies so flavorful. Two, I added some walnuts.

Here's the recipe:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup raisins (soak in juice for an hour)
1 cup nuts, chopped

Procedure:

1) Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2) Beat together the butter and sugars until creamy.
3) Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.
4) Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and mix with the egg and butter mixture; mix well
5) Stir in oats, raisins and nuts; mix well.
6) Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet
7) Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.
8) Remove to wire rack to cool.

ENJOY!!

Johnson's Thanksgiving Dinner (Check out related pictures in my other blog: pinayinutah.blogspot.com)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...sumpal la! Nalpasen apo!

I'm still so exhausted so I will be posting some recipes maybe next week. In the meantime, here are pictures of some items which I took while I was cooking them this morning. I found out that I can't do both cooking and taking pictures at the same time, specially when I am running behind the schedule. Like today, it was very hectic. I didn't get to take a lot of pictures.

Butterball turkeys don't come with pop-up timers. Therefore I bought a pop-up timer and stuck it into the turkey breast before I put it in the oven. When I took the bird out of the oven, when the timer popped up, the turkey was nice and golden brown. Everybody at the dinner said that the turkey was so moist and tender.

Swedish meatballs cooking in a crockpot

I put the spiral ham in a roaster oven to bake while I roasted the turkey in the big oven

Stuffing with Italian sausage

Bulalo, my favorite dish and comfort food, with yam, potatoes, green cabbage, plantain banana, bokchoy, and napa cabbage. This is one dish that you can make ahead of time. I boiled the meat a few days before and just before serving, I reheated it and put in the veggies.

I peeled and mashed 20 lbs. of potatoes and put it in another roaster oven which I borrowed from my friend, Aida, to keep the mashed potatoes warm.

What's for Dessert? ( Check out related pictures in my other blog: pinayinutah.blogspot.com

Cheesecakes, Cheesecakes and Cheesecakes!!!

Cherry cheesescake

Raspberry cheesecake

Strawberry cheesecake



The three kinds of cheesecakes shown in mini-tart shells or mini-pie crusts



Cherry cheesecake in a mini pie crust

Notes:

I will be posting the recipe next week.

I didn't have a chance to take a picture of the dessert table because I was so busy. Aside from cheesecakes, I made German chocolate cake, crema de fruta, and pistachio salad.

My friend Erlinda made some fruit salad with cottage cheese. Charley made some frosted brownies and pumpkin squares. Pumpkin pies were made by Wayne and Amy. They were all sinfully delish!!

The brazo de Mercedes con ube haleya didn't turn out good and it is not worth blogging about. As I was rolling the meringue, it cracked across that I couldn't roll it up. So I just made it into a flat cake with layers of the meringue, halaya, yema. Then I topped it with the other half of meringue. It tasted like brazo with ube, but of course didn't look like brazo because it's a flat layered cake. I decided to make one another time.